The subject device pertains to devices that are deployed and used on balloons to help keep a balloon under control to ensure that the balloon does not rise above a given tethered length and rise uncontrolably into the air. In general, the overall array of prior art devices falls within the area of balloon holding devices that are structured and deployed to prevent balloons from escaping from the grasp of the holder.
In this latter respect, balloons are frequently filled with helium or similar lighter-than-air gases to allow the balloon to rise upwardly in the air. Usually, balloons are frequently used as novelties for children and are held by a tethered string so that the balloon does not rise out of control into the air. In this respect, a growing problem with the use of such balloons is that they frequently escape the clutches of the holder and rise upwardly out of control in a free floating manner into the lower atmosphere. Specifically, when such balloons free-fly in the lower atmosphere, they can cause interference problems with air traffic, power lines, as well as causing other problems in the lower atmosphere. Yet other problems occur whenever the balloon breaks and falls to the ground. Over a significant period of time, with a large number of deflated balloons free-falling from the atmosphere, scattered at random over the landscape, pollution problems have occurred. A subsidiary problem arises when animals attempt to consume deflated balloons on the ground.
Both the airborne interference problems and the resultant ground pollution problems caused by proliferation of balloons have caused many governmental bodies to pass legislation restricting the usage of such balloons. Several states have passed legislation requiring that helium-filled balloons be equipped with an integrally-affixed tether line that may not exceed a given length. The purpose, obviously, of such requirements is to help ensure that the balloon does not fly into the air. While the requirements and use of such a tether line is not an assurance against the upwardly escape of balloons, it can help the problem significantly. Other measures are being contemplated to help alleviate the problem, however, the tether line requirement appears to be the most widely adapted remedy.
One of the problems encountered with the use of tether lines is the fixed length of the line. In many instances, with the line affixed to the balloon stem, a person holding the balloon line may not want to have the balloon rise up the distance of the line, but rather at a lesser distance in order to maintain the balloon under optimal control. In such circumstances, means are needed to permit the balloon user to adjust the tether line length and yet still restrict the tether line extension to the mandated limit. In short, means are needed, particularly in the case of children, to provide some means to prevent the balloon string from unravelling uncontrollably to its tethered length. Under such circumstances the balloon user may tend to lose control of the balloon.
No known balloon stem or tether line holders are known in the prior art to accomplish such an objective, and the subject apparatus is conceived as a device to accomplish same so as to control the upward projection of the tether string. Therefore, the following objects of the subject invention are directed accordingly.